“Palms Provoke!

”
(Palm Sunday)
April 17, 2011

Matthew 21:1-11

My family has always been musical. All of us have been involved in bands and choirs and various theatrical
productions. Somewhere around 1977, my brother Mark had a part in a production of “The Music Man,” by
Meredith Willson at West Holmes High School. While I was still in elementary school or in junior high, I had
tried out for one of the children’s parts but didn’t make it (although I had a part in the chorus of Rogers and
Hammerstein’s “Carousel” a year earlier). At the time, most everyone was familiar with “The Music Man”
because the 1962 film starring Robert Preston (as the con man Harold Hill) was a favorite on television almost
every year. I always liked this play whether it was at our local high school or on television. I liked the music as
well as the smooth talking patter of Harold Hill. In the play, Harold Hill attempts to stir up trouble in the small
Iowa town of River City so that he can sell them band instruments for a boys’ band. In order to create trouble
where there was none, Harold Hill gives a long speech in the town square about the evils of the pool table that
had recently arrived at the local billiard parlor. In his speech Howard Hill says,

And all week long, your River City youth'll be fritterin' away
I say, your young men'll be fritterin'
Fritterin' away their noontime, suppertime, choretime, too
Hit the ball in the pocket
Never mind gettin' dandelions pulled or the screen door patched
or the beefsteak pounded
Never mind pumpin' any water 'til your parents are caught
with a cistern empty on a Saturday night and that's trouble
Oh, ya got lots and lots o' trouble
I'm thinkin' of the kids in the knickerbockers shirttails,
young ones peekin' in the pool hall window after school
Ya got trouble, folks, right here in River City
with a capital 'T' and that rhymes with 'P' and that stands for 'pool'

In reality, it was not the arrival of the pool table, but the arrival of Harold Hill that was bringing trouble to River
City. If we flash back two thousand years or so, we find that Jesus’ arrival created the same sort of stir in
Jerusalem that Harold Hill’s arrival created in River City, Iowa. The arrival of Jesus and his entry into Jerusalem
was an event that made everyone take notice, from the man on the street, to the leaders of the temple, to the
occupying Roman army, and even though we can’t rhyme anything as well as Harold Hill did, the arrival of
Jesus spelled trouble with a capital ‘T’. (Matthew 21:1-11)
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As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2
saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by
her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will
send them right away.”
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This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
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“Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of
a donkey.’”
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The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and placed
their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut
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branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that
followed shouted,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

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When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”
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The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

As Jesus and the disciples approach Jerusalem, Jesus sends two of them ahead. Let’s pause for a minute and
think about what Jesus was doing. In most cases like this, the leader would send people ahead to make
preparations, to scout things out, to see what was there and report back, but that isn’t what Jesus is doing at all.
In fact, Jesus has already made preparations, he already knows what is ahead and instead of sending his best men
to find out what is there Jesus sends his men to discover what he has already put in place. We have spoken
before about God being the one who prepares a way for us, the God who goes before, and here Jesus
demonstrates that even before their arrival in Jerusalem, God has prepared everything that was needed. As the
disciples arrive in the city they find a donkey and her colt, just as Jesus described them and acquire them exactly
as he said they would. What’s more, Jesus rides the colt into the city just as Zechariah had described (Zechariah
9:9) the arrival of the Messiah more than five hundred years earlier, but here is where the trouble starts…

As Jesus rides into the city on the back of a donkey’s colt he has very deliberately staged his arrival to say
something that he has carefully avoided saying throughout his three years of ministry in Israel. The act of
arriving in this particular manner, especially in light of Zechariah’s prophecy and that of other prophets, is a
proclamation that he is indeed the long awaited messiah of Israel, the Son of David, heir to the throne and King
of Israel. This message is not lost on the disciples or on the crowds that fill the highway leading into the city.
As Jesus rides into the city the people spread their coats on the road along with cut branches from the trees just
as they would for the arrival of a king. The people shout “Hosanna!” and John 12:13 tells us that as they did so
they also waved palm branches in the air. This… is… not … good.

There are three significant problems. First, “Hosanna” means “God save,” “ Save us,” or “Save now.” By
shouting “Hosanna,” the people are both proclaiming Jesus as king and asking, in fact, practically demanding,
that Jesus rescue them and although Jesus has come to do exactly that, the rescue that Jesus has come to do does
not, in any way shape or form, resemble the rescue that they are hoping for. Second, because there were strict
religious prohibitions against graven images and equally strict Roman prohibitions against displays of
nationalism, Israel had no national flag and no patriotic banners to wave. Instead, because the Palm leaf was
about as close as anyone could come to having a symbol of Israel, waving Palm leaves in the air in under these
circumstances has almost precisely the same meaning you would understand if you saw photographs of cheering
French Parisians waving American flags as the first of Patton’s 3rd U. S. Army drove through Paris. Finally, they
are shouting “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” and “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” The
people on the road are very clearly proclaiming that God has sent his promised messiah to rescue Israel, to
overthrow the Roman army and to rule and reign over the people if Israel and the Promised Land. This leads us,
understandably, to the third problem, which is; the Romans are not likely to sit quietly and let this happen.

It is clear that the people on the road are anticipating the arrival of David’s heir, an earthly king and military
messiah who will take the throne by force and liberate his people once and for all. Our scripture tells us that the
whole city was stirred. The word that is translated as “stirred” is also translated as “shaken,” and as “troubled.”
(You might note that this is the same word that was used to describe the city of Jerusalem when the Wise Men
and their military entourage passed through the city in search Israel’s newborn king in the Christmas story.)
People want to know what is going on and they want to know who all the fuss is about. While the people on the

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road seem certain that Jesus is the messiah they have been hoping for, the people of the city do not seem to be so
sure. When the crowds in the city ask, “Who is this?” The answer is not that Jesus is the Messiah, not that he is
the rescuer and not that he is the coming king but simply that Jesus is the prophet from Nazareth.

In this scene we discover a tremendous and terrible tension. Jesus deliberately enters the city in the way that the
prophets foretold that the messiah would. Jesus willingly receives the praise and affirmation of him as Israel’s
messianic king. The people on the road who were shouting hosanna and who were waving palm branches
clearly expected a militarily powerful, earthly king. They expected an overthrow of the Roman occupation.
They expected a new earthly, political kingdom. They expected violence but that was not why Jesus had come.
Jesus arrived humbly on the back of a donkey’s colt, the beast that would carry a servant, not on a white stallion
as a military conqueror would arrive. The people who were shouting hosanna believed that the messiah had
come but not everyone was sure. Even worse, everyone who was a member of the established system of power
now stood to lose everything.

The Pharisees and the Sadducees had made a power sharing deal with the Roman government and these leaders
received many benefits from their Roman benefactors. If Jesus were to raise an army and fight against Rome
these leaders of Israel could lose everything. More obviously, any path to Jesus becoming an earthly king would
require the removal of all of Rome’s armies as well as all of the leaders of the Roman government. With the
arrival of Jesus and with the acclimation of the crowd that he is the long awaited the messiah, all of these groups
have now been alerted and provoked to defend themselves. Before the echoes of Jesus’ arrival begin to fade, the
plot to destroy him has already been set in motion by the Jerusalem’s leaders. If Jesus is the messiah, there will
be bloodshed. If Jesus is the messiah, the establishment will be overthrown. It was well known that anyone who
stood against Rome would be crushed and if there was an uprising, Jerusalem would be destroyed.

The arrival of Jesus and his entry into Jerusalem was an event that made everyone take notice, from the man on
the street, to the leaders of the temple, to the occupying Roman army, and even though we can’t rhyme anything
as well as Harold Hill did, the arrival of Jesus spelled trouble with a capital ‘T’. Before this, Jesus had been an
annoyance. Before this, Jesus had been an inconvenience. But now, as the crowd shouted “Hosanna” and as they
waved palm branches, Jesus had become something else. Now, Jesus was a threat, a clear and present danger to
everyone who held power and authority. Now, something had to be done.

While the crowds still cheered and waved palm branches, the leaders of Israel had already made up their
minds…

Jesus must die.

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
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